In the Texas Observer, Leonora Boulton wonders why Pennsylvania millionaire Jeff Yass is so interested in Texas vouchers, and shares her testimony about the latest Texas voucher bill.
I am a former private school teacher, a sixth-generation Texan, a graduate of K-12 public education here in Texas, and the mother of three amazing public-school children, and I oppose Senate Bill 2, legislation currently under consideration that would create publicly funded savings accounts for private schools. Though my husband makes a great living, well above the median income in Texas, we cannot afford private schools, which here in Austin would cost us around $90,000 per year. Were we to receive $10,000 per child, as proposed in SB 2, we would only be a third of the way to funding a private school tuition. Considering that 62 percent of public school students in Texas are economically disadvantaged, I am forced to wonder, Who is the real intended beneficiary of this bill?
I do not pretend to know the motivation of Jeff Yass, the billionaire libertarian who has contributed funds and pushed to get vouchers passed nationwide, including giving $12 million to our own governor in 2023 and 2024 alone. But I do know that Mr. Yass is not a Texan, and I also know that Texas is not for sale. Libertarians believe that education should be privatized. If that is the goal, can we have a bill doing that, rather than pretending the private school vouchers are about school choice or about serving students? The bill proposes a $10,000 payment per child, which I find interesting, considering that represents a 62 percent increase over the basic allotment that is currently given to each Texas student. If it costs $10,000 to educate a child, why have our schools been underfunded for years?
We know the answer to that question. We know who has refused to allow an increase in school funding, and it is our governor. Is the Texas governor’s plan to underfund education, then complain when it fails and demand privatization? We all know the system is not perfect, but that does not mean we need to slowly burn it to the ground in the guise of a voucher program.
According to Joshua Cowen, an author and a professor of education policy, for every dollar that voucher backers invest, they get about $100 in public money. That is an incredible return on their political investments. Perhaps that is the motivation: the desire to turn the second-largest public school system into a private one, where the return on those investments would be absolutely enormous.